


Scrunch Me

by martianwahtney



Series: Tony Stark Bingo IV [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Banter, Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Crack, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, Gen or Pre-Slash, Gratuitous Mentions of Scrunchies, M/M, Possibly Pre-Slash, Team Bonding, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric, We Love Scrunchies In This House, rip to tony but we're better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:00:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27106849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianwahtney/pseuds/martianwahtney
Summary: 3 times Tony asks Bucky why he wears scrunchies, and 1 time he figured it out for himself
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo IV [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978531
Comments: 29
Kudos: 145
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo Mark IV





	Scrunch Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KuraKaw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuraKaw/gifts), [endrega_Turtlesse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/endrega_Turtlesse/gifts).



> psa: i do not share tony's dislike for scrunchies and it pained me to insult them like this
> 
> TSB Card: 4011  
> A2: Victorious

1

Bucky was wearing a scrunchie. The sea foam monstrosity was wrapped around his metal arm. Nevermind the fact that it looked soft and the color was pretty, Tony could not wrap his mind around the fact that  _ there was a god damn scrunchie on Bucky’s metal arm _ . 

Tony really thought they had been left behind in the 80’s. 

He was willing to let the slight go, and he would have, but apparently the universe had it out for him because Bucky owned at least two dozen scrunchies of all sorts of colors and patterns and Tony was going to lose his damn mind.

In the end it was a terrible brown scrunchie that caused Tony to snap. 

“Why?” Tony asked as he plopped down next to Bucky one evening. 

“Why what?”

“Why must you dangle this tragedy in front of my face?” he asked, plucking at the brown scrunchie for good measure. 

Bucky looked down at it before he glanced back up at Tony. 

“Got somethin’ against scrunchies?”

“They should have stayed in the 80’s and the fact that you have brought them into  _ my _ tower is an affront to god,” Tony announced. 

“I see no harm in it,” Thor boomed, shit-eating grin on his face. 

Tony rolled his eyes and threw a pillow at Thor, the god dodged it easily.

“I just think they’re cute,” Bucky said. 

“Well there’s no accounting for taste,” Tony muttered. 

Bucky muttered something under his breath, it sounded suspiciously like “you’re trippin’” but there was no goddamn way a 100 year old man knew that phrase. Tony eyed him for a moment before he settled down in his chair, gaze sliding from the abhorrent scrunchie to the TV where JARVIS had queued up a movie. 

“Who’s turn is it tonight?” Tony asked. 

“Birdbrains,” Bucky said as Natasha and Clint walked in. 

“Another terrible action movie then?”

“Fuck you I only have good taste in movies,” Clint replied cheerily. 

“What about that time you made us watch the Happening,”

“Tree’s are suspicious,” the archer said with a shrug. 

“Tree’s-?!”

“Just let him be an idiot, Tones,” Rhodes said.

“Yea Tones,” Clint mocked even though he had just been called an idiot.

“Don’t fucking call me that,”

Clint just stuck his tongue out in response. 

2

“It has bats,” Tony pointed out, his dark gaze locked on the lime green scrunchie on Bucky’s wrist. 

“So it does,” Bucky agreed. 

Tony frowned. 

“Why?” he whined petulantly like he wasn’t a full grown superhero who ran a multibillion dollar company. 

“They’re soft,” Bucky said.

“Bats?”

Bucky shot him an unamused look.

“Scrunchies,” he said.

Tony glanced at the metal arm, marvelling for a few moments at how brilliant Princess Shuri was to make such a beautiful arm that could still feel something as soft as a fucking scrunchie. 

Tony supposed he couldn’t fault Bucky for that.

“So, what are we making today?” Bucky asked.

“Toda, Tasty Freeze, we’re going to make pasta from scratch,” Tony announced.

“You know how to do that?”

Tony dramatically placed his hand over his heart like he’d actually been wounded.

“What kind of Italian doesn’t know how to make fucking pasta?” he demanded.

“Un-fucking-believable. Alright, Elsa, you ready?”

“Sure am, Tin Man,”

Tony snorted at the nickname. They worked together well, making enough pasta to feed the entire team. Tony even made some kind of white wine sauce to go with it, and all the while they bantered back and forth.

“They’re also lucky, you know,” Bucky started.

Tony, who was focused on the sauce before him, didn’t turn to see the sly smile on Bucky’s face.

“What are?”

“Scrunchies,”

“Bullshit,” Tony said emphatically.

“They helped me take down that villain last week,”

“You fucking took down that villlain last week because you  _ threw me at him _ ,” Tony shot back.

“Yea, luckily,”

Tony threw a dish towel at him.

3

“How many of these do you have?!” Tony demanded, pointing at the navy blue scrunchie on the table. 

“A lot,”

“Humor me,”

Bucky eyed him for a second, blue eyes twinkling. His dark hair was up in a bun, secured by an orange- you guessed it- scrunchie. 

“Fifty or so,” he said. 

Tony’s eyebrows shot toward his hairline. 

“An’ that’s lowballin’ it,”

“Why do you need so many?” Tony asked. 

Bucky actually seemed to contemplate this question so Tony waited him out. His metal fingers closed around the navy blue scrunchie, rubbing the fabric between his thumb and forefinger. 

“HYDRA didn’t let me have this,” he said quietly.

Tony’s dark gaze flashed up to meet Bucky’s blue one.

“They didn’t let me have soft things… o-or comfortable things. An-and rubber bands use’ta yank strands out, and the usual hair ties left weird dents in my hair, scrunchies don’t do any of that. I can feel them around my wrist, and sometimes it feels like the only real reminder that I’m not in HYDRA anymore, ‘cause they would never let me have this,” Bucky saids.

_ Oh _ .

Tony took the scrunchie from him and slowly slid it around Bucky’s metal wrist, his fingers brushing against the cool metal.

“Well then,” he murmured, feeling strangely emotional and out of sorts.

“Can’t let you lose any of them,”

+1

Tony frowned and prodded the scrunchie. The fabric was soft beneath his calloused fingers. He hummed gently and picked it up, testing the elasticity as he did so. It was pale pink in color, almost pleasant to look at. Tony made an aborted move to set it back on his work table but stopped himself. He was prone to losing things on his work table and the last thing he wanted to do was lose one of Bucky’s beloved scrunchies. He slid it onto his right wrist, noting it was comfortable in its tightness, not nearly enough to hurt, but just enough that he was constantly aware of its soft presence on his wrist. 

_ Fuck _ , he thought. 

Bucky might be onto something. 

**Author's Note:**

> [you know the drill fam](https://www.lronhusbands.tumblr.com/)


End file.
